I do not diet in December

So, I went to the Endocrinologist yesterday and found out that I have lost another 4 pounds!  Woo hoo!!  This brings me to 18 pounds lost this year and a total of 53 pounds lost in just under 3 years.  I'm only 4 pounds away from a healthy BMI.

I'm going off my diet!

First, let me define what "diet" means to me.  Diet = cutting back on calories.  My diet from July through yesterday, has been 1500/day.

I know, it seems backwards doesn't it?  I lost 4 pounds in a month and I only have four to go...why stop there?  Because it's DECEMBER!  There's a lot of hectic-ness in December which is a bit stressful.  Add to that, I have choir concerts throughout the month, with the Community Choir.  Not to mention I'm auditioning for a musical next week and rehearsals would start right away.  While I love every minute of all the things I'm doing...hectic=stress.  Um, and as a Diabetic...this is not good.  So, I refuse to add any fuel to the fire.

It's a bit stressful to choose to eat less calories.  It takes a lot of thinking, tracking and choosing things that aren't necessarily easy to find.  It's not so hard when I'm going about my normal schedule and eating in controlled environments.  When it comes to family gatherings and home cooked treats, that's not really a controlled environment.  I don't even have the luxury of always choosing restaurants at this time of year.

So, I've decided to make the holidays easy on myself and give myself a gift by not dieting.  I'm committed to counting my carb servings (no more than three at a meal and no more than 2 at a snack).  That's an every day thing and I've been doing it for almost three years, so it's second nature to me now.  I don't care how many calories I eat in and around those carbs though.

In the winter, it's not as easy to get the fresh vegetables and fruits that I love so much.  So, I tend to eat a lot more calories.  So, I'm going to play winter by ear.  I'm going to try a maintenance diet of 1800 calories a day and that may go up to 2000 calories when I'm more active. I may stick to that during the show or I might decide to go back down to my 1500.  I can guarantee once I'm back to hiking next year...I'll be focused on dropping those last 4 pounds.  Next year, I will hit my goal weight (and maybe shave off a few more pounds for good measure) and then stop and maintain from there.  Until then, I'm content to play it by ear based on how I feel and what I want to eat.

I hope you enjoy the holidays and give yourself a gift of some sort to make it easier.  If you do, leave a comment and share what your gift to yourself is.